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The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

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131–140 of 218 posts

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#131
post #93
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not as random laptops, no.

If you see a market oppurtunity like this, I suggest you go for it. There are many companies which will make you a custom laptop for such a quantity. Good luck!

The problem is the brand specification. Nobody wants unbranded laptops.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#132
post #129
post #12

I'd be interested in finding out how many people do this with the front facing camera on their phone. It seems to be a much lower percentage than those who do it with their laptop webcam (from what I've observed at least).

I recently did it with the front facing camera of my phone. The back facing camera always points into the table. I feel uncomfortable undressing myself with that 'eye' staring at me (crazy times we live in ;p). I mean, this is one of those security measures that cost you basically nothing (a sticker) and can save you a huge ache in the unlikely case that someone is actually recording - why not do it?

That seems a little silly to me. A laptop camera is normally facing into the room, but the camera on your phone will normally be facing upwards, so surely you have nothing to worry about unless you are standing naked over your phone.

Actually, that's given me a great idea to secure my phone from hackers. Stand over it naked and waggle my sack about - that's one camera they'll never ever hack again lol

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#133
post #29

I care about audio so much more than video, and text/keys/etc captured from the machine even more. As long as my screen and keyboard are out of the frame of the camera, I don't really care about it getting RATed. At worst, you'll see me naked, or making angry/etc. faces at someone on irc or email. While embarrassing it would be less bad than most of what you could accomplish by stealing actual information. OTOH, carr…

Why would you use Chrome if you're concerned about privacy?

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#134

To me, Comey is a man who has lost the goal in pursuit of his particular mission. Defense, intelligence, policing, all these things exist in order to uphold the constitution, protect the "American ideals", etc. Many of his statements pretty directly show that he doesn't care about the collateral damage to innocent people's privacy or any founding principles, he just wants his mission to be unhindered. It's the same m…

Something else to consider: Comey is also the man who famously rushed to the bedside of a very ill John Ashcroft who was being asked by Alberto Gonzales to reauthorize the warrantless wiretapping [now known as STELLAR WIND] to stop it because he felt it was illegal. Like he actually threatened to quit and was acting AG. [1]

I'm no way trying to defend his agency's actions on encryption - it's chilling and probably one of the most important and defining issues of the information age. Only adding this to point out that people are complex and not black and white and their motives and beliefs and actions can sometimes be in conflict and cognitively dissonant.

1 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05...

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#135
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hayden understands technology like a politician understands rhetoric. He's a snake.

I have no reason to believe that he's a snake - quite the opposite. He seems to be a man with strongly held convictions and a keen eye for reason. I certainly don't always agree with him, but he's thoughtful and thorough, as can be observed from his many interviews and his recent book. I can respect a person without agreeing wholeheartedly with them, and such is the case for Hayden. Comey, on the other hand, seems to…

I am hesitant to engage at this level, but - you just couldn't be more wrong about Comey. I know him to be every bit as thoughtful and reasonable as your glowing description of Hayden. That doesn't mean I agree with all of his positions, but he is one of the smarter people I've met, and I do not believe that is an indication of how sheltered my life has been. I also know him to be perfectly capable of acknowledging when he's gotten it wrong, and generally willing to admit it, change course, and move on. That leaves me fairly optimistic about how this whole mess will turn out. In any case, you taking this instance, and something you obviously feel strongly about, and using it to craft barbs about "the worst kinds of cops" - well, frankly that's exactly the kind of emotional hyperbole that will continue to make rational discourse here difficult. This sort of frothy angst distracts from otherwise potentially reasonable arguments, and probably makes dismissing them seem more reasonable. Can you see how that might be happening here?

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#136
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you see a market oppurtunity like this, I suggest you go for it. There are many companies which will make you a custom laptop for such a quantity. Good luck!

The problem is the brand specification. Nobody wants unbranded laptops.

I (anecdotally) disagree. I'd love to have a good-spec laptop that had no logos or branding on it.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#137
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like phones, most laptop webcams have no "on" light. You have to trust that the software you have on your device isn't using the microphone and camera without your permission.

you and i have very different experience with webcams. i have yet to see a webcam without an indicator led in my life.

I recall a blackhat video on YouTube where they could access webcams and disable the LED, having a LED isn't a certain indication unless you know that it's not software activated. I have a Logitech and was able to control the LED using information given at the time ... can't recall the details now sorry.

A quick search on security.stackexchange reveals similar info.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a pattern you see in a lot of high-performing people. They aren't particularly interested in the 'big picture'. They may say they are, they may think they are, but on a practical, day-to-day basis, it's irrelevant. They know the mission of their organizational unit, they know the goals that need to be accomplished to achieve that mission, they know the metrics they need to hit to advance within that organizat…

> they know the metrics they need to hit to advance within that organization This is really the one. It seems like the country is in a crisis of metrics. Nobody trusts anybody to do their job anymore so everything has to have a surrounding bureaucracy with the stated purpose of keeping everybody honest but having the actual consequence of setting many misguided and contradictory rules and then strictly enforcing an a…

Wish I could upvote you a million times. Many supposedly capitalistic organizations are in fact like miniature Soviet Unions.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#140
NPR suggests people in the director's position have a more legitimate need to cover their webcams "... It's certainly not unreasonable to worry about webcams, especially for someone as high-profile as Comey"

And teenagers?

There is no mention in the article of the "Lower Merion School District" case where school officials were spying on teenagers through their webcams in their rooms.

Call me old fashioned, but I think that's an important case for the general public to know about when discussing webcam privacy...

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